Public schools are failing to teach kids to read and write: King Randall

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Children graduating 'functionally illiterate' from public schools: King Randall

The 22-year-old, who is working to open a charter school in Atlanta, said the public education system is failing to teach kids to read and write while bragging about graduation rates on 'Fox News Primetime.'

A 22-year-old education trailblazer who wants to create a charter school in Atlanta, Georgia, said the public school system is graduating kids who don't have basic literary skills Wednesday on "Fox News Primetime." 

"I've been working with children for the past three years, and when I began working with the children, seeing them not be able to read … [or] write, I became alarmed," said King Randall. "I was wondering why and how these kids were being passed through school … And when I say you can't read and write, I mean literally just that."

Children in a classroom. (iStock)

Randall, founder of "The X for Boys," added that schools tout their graduation rates, but beneath that veneer are illiterate kids. 

"They're touting, 'We have a super high graduation rate and these children are … graduating functionally illiterate," Randall told host Lawrence Jones. 

Randall cautioned against blaming the black hole in the education system on the teachers, who are affected by the toxic system just as students are.

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Students get onto buses in Portland, Maine.  (Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)

"So many of us love to say that the teachers don't want to teach, etc. It's not even that … these teachers are also handcuffed to the same system," he said. "Teachers also need school choice, too. Nobody stands up for teachers when they need assistance as well."

Randall said teachers don't feel safe at school.

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"I just heard Joe Biden say that the children are safer at school. Children are not safe at school. These kids are still smoking at school," Randall added. "These kids are having sex at school. These guys are doing crazy things at school, and these teachers are also being violently assaulted at school, etc. But these stories don't hit the news. These stories don't come anywhere because anytime a teacher says something, it gets brushed under the rug."

Marijuana. (RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP via Getty Images)

He added that "nobody stands up for teachers."

"This is why school choice in schools like ours is so important because we have to give teachers an option. We have to give students an option. We have to give parents an option because parents are having trouble, especially single moms who are working, and they need schooling for their children. They're expecting the school to be teaching their children to read, to be teaching their children to write. And these kids are 14 and 15 years old, and their parents discover that they can't read."